Proposals for 2007 Spring State Committee Meeting

Proposals for the State Committee meeting can be submitted, revised, and commented on here. The State Committee meeting is on Saturday April 14th, 2007. State Committee proceedures say that the last day to submit anything here is March 31st, 2007 (extended due to late availability of this posting page to April 7th, 2007).

Any two members of the State and Administrative Committees or any Green Local may submit a proposal for the State Committee to consider. Proposals are to be sent to working committees for vetting at least three weeks before a StateCom meeting, and posted on the website at least two weeks before a StateCom meeting so they can be mailed to State Committee members, and so that delegates can read them online. No proposals will be accepted at the meeting, except by any StateCom delegates which are elected within 4 weeks of an upcoming scheduled StateCom meeting. If sponsors are bringing a proposal to the meeting for consideration, the sponsors are responsible for bringing enough copies of the proposals for all the delegates to have one.

Proposals should also try to follow the “Complete Proposal Guidelines” as specified in a separate document. This document contains a template that can be used as the starting point for constructing a proposal for submission.

If you have proposals that are ready to post, do not hesitate as it gives people more of a chance to read it and comment on it ahead of time and possibly improve it.

If you have the proposal already in a word processor document, please attach the document at the bottom of your post to facilitate the process of making the proposal package for the meeting.

Please read them completely so you are prepared for clarifying questions, discussion, and decisionmaking. If you have comments ahead of time, you can post a follow up here and you can contact the sponsors of the proposal.

Public Rights in Tidelands Development
Friday April 13, @10:51AM by John Andrews, Jill Stein, Elie Yarden
In February 2007, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the DEP had erred in exempting certain filled tidelands from the public process specified by Chapter 91 - The Public Waterfront Act. The Patrick Administration moved quickly to submit legislation to permit wholesale exemption of filled tidelands from the Act. This exemption would allow development to bypass questions of public benefit and mitigation of harmful effects of development. The proposed statement says the important public benefit considerations of Chapter 91 should not be thus abrogated.
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AdCom size change
Thursday April 12, @03:58PM by Merelice, Luc Shuster, Elie Yarden, Jill Stein, Ron Francis
NOTE: Notice of this proposal (which was available for viewing as a proposal at the January StateCom meeting) was emailed in time while Merelice was out of the country.

Currently, AdCom meets twice a month (once in person and once by teleconference) and conducts almost daily business between meetings. This is a time-consuming commitment that makes it difficult especially for the Membership, Communications, and Fundraising Directors to carry out their committee responsibilities as well as other needed Party activities.

The need for frequent AdCom meetings is partly because AdCom is entrusted with carrying out Party work between StateCom meetings and tends not to delegate its implementation. As a result, much (if not most) of AdCom time is spent on endorsements, position statements, Party strategy, and other policy-related activities that are actually StateCom responsibilities but fall to AdCom. Consequently, these activities
(1) draw time and attention away from the administrative functions that need more support to keep the party healthy,
(2) put such decisions in fewer hands than should be the case, given our Key Value of Decentralization,
(3) seriously overburden the AdCom members and/or pulls them away from participating in and building local chapters and working committees.

Local chapters and working committees most often include StateCom members. By referring policy-related party business to these groups rather than expecting AdCom to handle everything, StateCom members would have a more active hand in decisions between StateCom's own meetings. GRP members particularly interested in some functions that AdCom handles might be attracted to working committees if those functions were appropriately delegated. For example, building coalitions and recommending endorsements of the actions of other organizations could be sent to the External Relations Committee. Position statements could be sent to the Platform Committee, etc. If the committees and locals are not capable of handling activities, the burden should not be borne by AdCom.

A smaller AdCom would result in (1) enabling AdCom to focus on its administrative functions with less distraction and pressure, (2) giving the Membership, Communications, and Fundraising Directors more flexibility to carry out their critically important committee work, (3) drawing fewer members away from being active in local chapters and on working committees, and (4) giving StateCom members more say and participation in policy-related work between meetings through their local chapters and/or working committees.
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Endorse and Support the Re-Election of Chuck Turner
Sunday April 08, @10:01PM by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
The Boston Chapter and the Rainbow Caucus have endorsed the re-election of Chuck Turner to the Boston City Council, District 7.
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Building a Stronger Team of Candidates/Electoral Campaignsfor the 2008 Election
Thursday April 05, @12:59PM by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
from the CDLC committee.
Earlier I had sent out to the CDLC an earlier draft and encouraged discussion and feedback. I want to thank Grace Ross, Jamie O’Keefe and Ron Francis for sharing their ideas. Mentioning their names in no way implies their support for my proposal.

The best results of our effort will be to build on the vision and improve on our practice from our recent 2006 statewide slate of candidates. To be more effective, we can do the following:

a. Members of the State Committee can play a more active role by coordinating campaigns in their region.
b. The CDLC can provide the information, coordination and training for the candidates and their campaigns.
c. The Platform Committee can provide support by developing issue papers, providing research, etc.
d. ComCom can produce a public relations manual and a statewide newspaper, which can be produced and distributed by the party on a regular basis.
e. The Tech Comm. can provide space on our website.
f. The Membership Comm. can strengthen the local base of our party by helping to build and strengthen our local
chapters and by identifying and involving other activists across the state.
g. The Finance Comm. can establish a separate “fund” to raise $ across the state for our candidates/campaigns?
h. What other parts of the state party did I forget to include in this proposal?

(If you would like a copy of the entire report, please send an e-mail message to me (mikeheichman@verizon.net)
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